Crawley Town opinion: Cheer up, a win is just around the corner

Another appalling display by the Referee and officials, but once again it was not the reason for last Tuesday’s defeat against fifth-placed Mansfield, managed by the man who will never have to come to Crawley again, Nigel Clough. With Ben Gladwin in charge for his second and last game and new manager, Robbie Elliott watching from the stands, Crawley produced a carbon copy of the game against Bolton, conceding an early goal and, despite playing well throughout, conceded a second on 92 minutes to seal our fate.

The first goal, scored after just twelve minutes should have been prevented by us defending the corner properly, I know. However, the whole of Torres Corner exploded in protest as the ball was nowhere near overlapping the quadrant’s white line as Lewis, the Stags number 8, swung the ball into the area. What made it worse was that the referee, perhaps realising his error, made sure that Lewis didn't repeat the trick when taking later corners. It should not have mattered, we should have defended the corner better, but rules are rules and with the Assistant referee at the other end of the pitch, it must be down to the referee to make sure they are obeyed. The second goal, in our present run of results, seemed sadly inevitable but I still think that the only really below par performance this season was the game against Barnsley.

There were changes made by Ben Gladwin to the starting line up from the Bolton game, with Bradley Ibrahim, Harry Forster and Ade Adeyemo in for Cameron Bragg, Jeremy Kelly and Panutche Camara and substitutions were made in the second half seeing Kelly, Max Anderson, Jack Roles and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy replacing Forster, Ibrahim, Adeyemo and Will Swan. Hopefully, this will have given Rob Elliott a chance to see the majority of the squad in action, However, there are so many questions that need to be answered about other players in our squad, that I wish would be asked by the professional media. For instance, why is there no goalkeeping substitute? Why is the club website showing players who, I believe, are no longer with us? Where is Sonny Fish, Tolu Showunmi and our Nigerian centre back??

And, as if by magic, Showumni is on the bench for the Wycombe game, so that’s one of the questions answered. Panutche back in the squad, Kelly off the bench into the team and the afternoon’s match gets underway, the first game of the Robbie Elliott era. Ifollow with no sound for the first 19 minutes didn’t augur well and when it did come on Ibrahim was denied a penalty and booked for his protestations. Four minutes later Onyedinma scores for the home side, and it looks like we’re in for another long afternoon.

At half time the scores from Burton (1-0 up thanks to a certain D. Orsi), from Bolton, two down against Shrewsbury and from St James’ Park where Cambridge United are losing yet again, sees Crawley Town down to 23rd and I’m clutching at straws. Yes, we might have had a penalty and Harry Forster did hit the bar at the end of a good move, but we do need to stop giving goals away and start scoring some for ourselves. We have played six teams in the top half of the league, but when you have only scored five goals in eight and a half games and are the division's lowest scorers, it is no surprise we are struggling at the moment.

In the end, despite Crawley not having won in seven game and Wycombe not having lost in seven, Crawley just managed to hang on to 21st place as only Shrewsbury, out of the bottom seven, could gain a point from their draw at Bolton. Next week, Crawley at home to the Shrews now becomes vital in our attempt to climb away from the drop zone, Noli Cedere .